One mile farther brings us to that ancient summer resort known as Prout’s Neck. We are now on historic ground, this having been the point earliest settled in the town of Scarboro’. As early as 1633 Thomas Cammock, the first proprietor, had a house here, the cellar of which is still pointed out, as is also the site of the garrison where, in 1703, eight men drove off a besieging force of five hundred French and Indians.

The Neck forms a peninsula, with the ocean on one side and a broad estuary on the other, on the opposite shore of which lies Old Orchard Beach, with its many hotels, in full view. For many years this Neck has been a favorite resort of picnic parties from Portland, Saco, Scarboro’, Gorham, and other towns. It was long the property of the late Thomas Libby, whose family accommodated transient visitors by cooking the fish caught by them off the rocks. There are now several boarding houses here for the accommodation of summer visitors, which are always well patronized in the season. A number of summer cottages have also been built on the Neck.

There is a fine sea beach on the Neck; also a bold, rocky shore, commanding wide ocean views. The shore is much resorted to by gunners, for the shooting of sea-fowl, which are often seen floating in large flocks on the surface of the sea. Scarboro’ is famous for its marshes. The Indian name was Owascoag, or “place of much grass,” to which these extensive marshes fairly entitle it.

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